tiredwithtwins

hi folks...
One possibly for the folks already in oz...
Do you pay any sort of council tax in australia?
Found lots of websites advising you what to do when you first get there eg about registering for tax file number, medicare, utilities etc, but nothing pertaining to any form of council tax/rates.
Anyone advise?

Bottoms up!

Kiwipaul

The only council tax you pay here is rates when you Own land and property. If you rent you don't pay this the landlord does.
Average rates are about $1,000 per year but it depends on the value of the land and where about it is.

DianeOZ

Ours is about $750 per year.

Diane

Ceri

that's cheap... jammy sod

$1 300. here ... that's a bit of a false rate bill though... I had a rebate this year because the land was empty and I used no water. (I paid for water in last bill - but they give me a rebate this year).. last year I paid around $1400, and also minus the wheelie bin charges.

Average in Brisbane is over a grand a year... depending on the suburb... it also depends on the council, my council you pay water within those rates... if you go over the allocated amount of water you get charged more, if under.. you'll have a rebate the following year for any unused water... also within certain areas.. you can also be hit with a fire levy if your backing onto bush/high risk fire area... so it depends on a lot of things. But I think it's pretty safe to say all households in brisbane are paying above the thousand mark.

Cheers

DianeOZ

oooohh water is a different bill! Sorry - that's about $550 per year plus any extra that you use


Diane

Ceri

So it works out about the same as us in Brisbane. I thought for a moment that you bunch of rabble in Perth were getting a better deal than us... lol

Cheers

DianeOZ

No such luck!!

tiredwithtwins

cheers guys!
These rates and taxes dont seem to be mentioned in the sites I have looked at about cost of living etc......and none of them are cheap are they!!??
So, depending where you are you pay a tax if you own a property of around $750-$1500. then there is a water bill, around $550, and a wheelie bin bill (how much is that?) If you live near the outback you can get charged a fire levy........any I have missed?
Dont mind paying, obviously, but its nice to know what to expect!
Any other taxes/bills/charges we should know about?

Sue

DianeOZ

Nah, just the car stamp duty which you know about. There is car Rego (Like road tax in UK)

Probably worth a mention that you always feel like you're paying bills as your utility bills arrive more frequently eg phone bill every month, leccy every 2 months. I have not come across the facility where you can have a budget plan for these where you pay an average evry month so you can forget about it. The best you can do with rates is pay quarterly but they add a bit on for the privelage. Mind you they take a bit off if you pay all upfront by a certain date. I pay mine over the internet which is convenient.


Diane

scutterUK

sorry for restating here, but there's no direct debit type payments? Does this mean i'm going to have to start using cheques again? buggah. :scared:

Kiwipaul

No their is Direct debiting here, I've not had a cheque book for 3 years and I don't miss it. Using Internet banking you can actually pay anyone by just entering their bank account No and sort code and the amount to pay. You can also set it up to pay say Fred Bloggs $200 on 10th of every month, or just once on the 10th of next month. I use this to pay tradespeople when they do jobs for me. I use direct debit to pay off my credit card in full on last possible day before penality. Banking is more flexible here than it was in the UK (mind you that was 10 years ago).

Also in QLD electricty bills come once a quarter, so must be different in dif states.

owieb

And BPAY is great for paying bills online, so easy!

scutterUK

thank gawd for that, i was starting to panic then. i can't remember how to fill in a 'cheque'. Banking has come on a long way in 10 years, it's pretty much the same here now. Don't you just love internet banking...

thanks for the info.

bondipom

I guess you might have the wheel over their there as well. You get all that life changing internet banking in the UK for free.

Here in Oz you have to pay 5 to 10 dollars a month for the privilige. You have to pay for more than a couple of ATM withdrawls and god help you if you use a anothers banks ATM. You have to pay for credit cards and now you have the privilige of paying credit card surcharges if you book with Quantas.

The only saving grace with bank fees is ING direct who provide a savings account like egg in Britain.

Banks here are *ank.

But who emigrates for a bank!!!

bondipom

Don't forget you have to pay to renew your drivers license every few years. The RTA bloke got a shock when I converted my license and he saw it expired in 35 years instead of the 3 years he was returning.

Anyway there are loads of hidden taxes here but lifestyle rather than wealth is the reason most people come here.